8 Unique Places to Buy Handmade Goods Online

Even in the digital age, consumers still love products made with love — enough to pay more for them, according to recent research.

A study by marketing professors from Cornell University, WU Vienna University of Economics and Business, and Technische Universität München explains:

Handmade products might be perceived to contain and transmit the artisan’s “essence” in the form of his or her love for the product in a way that machine-made products cannot. … The customer then perceives the handmade product itself to be literally imbued with love.

Etsy, an online marketplace for all things handmade, perhaps provides proof of this phenomenon. After the company’s initial public offering last month, its stock nearly doubled in the first day.

Etsy might have been the first online marketplace for handmade goods, but it’s no longer the only one. And more competition for sellers means more choices for shoppers. So we’ve rounded up the most shopper-friendly online marketplaces.

This Milwaukee-based company, whose name is an anagram for “a craft,” has been out of beta since October 2013.

Its marketplace clearly separates itself from Etsy’s by sticking strictly to American and handmade goods. So unlike on Etsy, there are no sellers based outside the U.S. and no crafting supplies or vintage items for sale.